Slow motion movies help outsider to take £20,000

The Turner Prize regained its capacity for surprise last night when video artist Douglas Gordon , the outsider, was awarded the pounds 20,000 award in a ceremony at the Tate Gallery. Before the presentation this year's shortlist was attacked for being lacklustre and all male.

The jury praised Mr Gordon, aged 30, for 'his engagement with profound issues of meaning, psychological discipline and moral ambiguity'. It noted his use of a 'wide range of media with consistent intelligence and creative insight'.

Earlier, mannequins had been chained to the railings outside the Tate, possibly in protest at the absence of women from the shortlist.

Mr Gordon, who is working on a screenplay, was asked last night what he would do with his prize money. 'I will probably pay people in order not to get nominated for something,' he said.

He was certainly not overwhelmed by the award. 'It's like a band who win something like the Brit awards.'

Mr Gordon's victory represents a triumph for Glasgow, his home town. He was the only shortlisted artist from outside London, and recent winners have all been London-based.

Last year's prize caused considerable controversy when it was won by Damien Hirst. His show included Mother and Child Divided, a dissected cow and calf in tanks of formaldehyde. The year before, Anthony Gormley won with 40,000 miniature clay figures, and in 1993 the prize went to Rachel Whiteread for her cast of an East End house.

Mr Gordon gained attention for 24-Hour Psycho, a slowed-down version of the Hitchcock film. His work for the show includes Confessions Of A Justified Sinner, a slowed-down version of the 1932 film Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Another work, A Divided Self, is a two-part video, screened simultaneously, which shows two hands wrestling, one shaved, the other hairy. His third, untitled work is a text-based series of contradictory words.

Mr Gordon studied at Glasgow School of Art and the Slade in London between 1988 and 1990. He then returned to Glasgow, where he produced 24 Hour Psycho (1993).

He has explained his fascination with film, saying: 'When I couldn't sleep as a child, I used to get into bed with my parents and watch TV with them. So I'd see all these adult things. Film has been the common denominator for our generation.'

His future projects include a version of John Ford's 1956 western, The Searchers, slowed-down to last five years, the period covered in the plot.

At 5/1, Mr Gordon had been the outsider since the shortlist was announced. The other candidates were painter Gary Hume, the even money favourite, photographer Craigie Horsfield, and conceptual artist Simon Patterson.

The prize was presented by Joan Bakewell at a dinner at the Tate Gallery. Past winners present included Hirst and Whiteread.

Channel 4, which has sponsored the prize for the past six years, announced support for a further three years last night.